Continental Airlines Posts

Editor's note: this is the second installment two-part series assessing the U.S. - India passenger market and aviation strategy, and the impact of Middle East airlines carring 6th freedom traffic between the two countries. Part I, which can be found here, assessed the restoration of Indian ...

United Airlines may be the most beefy guy at the party, and the one who always arrives on-time.
But relative to its major peers, United is also the odd-man-out for one glaring reason: it is in the worst financial shape of all of the party attendees.
Even more troublesome is ...

All hope is not lost in the global aviation world after the International Air Transport Association (IATA) released its Airline Financial Analysis for the months of December 2012 and January 2013. According to IATA, airline share prices continue to outperform as financial markets upgrade their ...

"Corporate apologies," a cartoon illustrated by artist Tom Fishbourne, depicts the traditional corporate mindset where apology letters admit the company did nothing wrong, but will still emit a compensation voucher for "inconveniences," ultimately rendering the apology to be more frustrating than ...

United Airlines is promising more flights, added comfort onboard and technology "at your fingertips." But in reality, the carrier needs to get over itself and fix its merger challenges before it's too late.
The merger integration between United Airlines and Continental Airlines has been ...

Trip report for UA 646/82 from Chicago to Delhi (via Newark)
I'm pleased to announce that I have published my second trip report in two weeks, featuring the Economy Class journey from Chicago to Delhi on United Airlines (via Newark).
Some TR excerpts:
+ Review of the United Club at ...

On my last frequent flyer award trip I flew Egypt Air, Turkish Airlines and Continental (now United Airlines) in business class. On each long haul flight I received an amenity kit which was given to all business class passengers. Most flights were two cabin flights: BusinessFirst on Continental, ...

17 May 2012
My Dear Friends from Continental Airlines,
A simple question for you: what is wrong? What is it that is truly bothering you?
I have been a steady United Airlines customer since 2004 and I grew to love the airline. I also have flown Continental Airlines going back to your ...

Last week I was flying from out of Houston and decided to use a soon to be expired Confirmed Regional Upgrade Region 1...err Premier Regional Upgrade I think they're called now... to upgrade my flight since I was scheduled to be on a 767. The plane was a former Continental aircraft with what I ...

It seems like the news outlets are bursting this week with griping.
Caution: before you continue reading, I must warn you, this post will be full of debbie-downerism. I advise anyone who can't tolerate far-fetched, irrational boo-hooing to abstain from full exposure to such sources.
Let's ...

Workers remove a sign with the old Continental Airlines logo to reveal the new United logo featuring Continental's blue globe. Image courtesy of Roger Yu at USA Today.
"FORTUNE -- United Continental Holdings is learning the hard way that it isn't wise to mess with Texas. The recently ...

Editors note: this is the second of two installments covering the dynamics of ultra-long haul flights that have become more and more commonplace in the global aviation world. Part one, which provided an overview and a few examples of ULH flights, can be found here. Part two assesses some of the ...

This is the best breakfast I've ever had on an airplane.
On a recent United-Continental flight from San Josè, Costa Rica to Newark Liberty I scored a last-minute upgrade that landed me in early-morning Bloody Mary bliss. ...

Read Part I here
As I mentioned in Part I, when I reached SFO Saturday morning to check in for my trip to Philadelphia via Chicago, the agent could not find my ticket. I had been re-booked by a legacy Continental agent the night before during irr/ops and deliberately or not, she had not synced ...

March 3rd was the big day when United and Continental merged their IT systems. It came and went without a hitch for most.
At first, I thought all was good for me. My EQMs PQMs got transferred over. My lifetime mileage balance was the same, and all of my itineraries were merged. Then as my ...

I walked into the SFO United Club today, and as usual, I gave them my boarding pass to scan for my membership. Usually this is a two second process, but the agent asked me if I was a member. I said that I was, and she said she needed my Mileage Plus number. I did my best to try and remember my new number, but she stopped me and said, "No... the old one..." I remembered that one.

After I sat down, I logged into the T-Mobile WiFi. Once again, I tried my new number. No go. I tried the old one. Success.

I'm sure there will be similar cases of this over the next couple weeks. It looks like it's not quite time to un-remember that old Mileage Plus number yet!

United and Continental tails at San Francisco airport (courtesy of Google)
When I first learned how to mountain climb, as a young middle schooler and former Boy Scouts of America member, those were some of the lingo I was taught in normal climbing protocol. Wearing a rock climbing ...

I've been dealing with a number of family issues over the last week, so I apologize for the brevity of recent posts and the noticeable gaps between them. Just to warn my six readers, the next couple weeks don't look much better. But, never lose hope. I have so many trip reports and hotel reviews to ...

Matthew spoke a few days ago about the all important passenger systems integration between United and Continental that took place and the possible 'armagaddon' that such endeavours have brought in other airline mergers. That fact that I was supposed to fly from Chicago to Houston on United some 35 ...

If an airline merger were to be seen like a marriage, and Southwest and AirTran had already announced their plans for engagement last May, then receiving a Single Operating Certificate (SOC) by the Federal Aviation Administration is like receiving a marriage license. Today, that step was completed, ...